How’s that for the title of a sermon on the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis 3? It popped into my head while my daughter and I read that story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.
(Jenni and I are currently listening to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy [1, 2, 3] in which the “One Ring to rule them all” is prominent.)
Earlier this week I mentioned how much Jenni and I enjoyed listening to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Several good-intentioned people rebuked me on the premise that Harry Potter is dark literature that Christians should avoid. I privately asked each person three questions:
Their answers were consistent:
I don’t mind disagreeing on this disputable matter. The underlying desire to glorify God by avoiding worldliness is commendable. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask that people be more informed about this issue before admonishing others about it.
Related:
Update: I try to show how Harry Potter illustrates biblical theology in this 4-minute video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD6LCYLlYpE
Jenni and I just finished listening to the best-selling book series of all time: Harry Potter.
Jim Dale masterfully reads the seven-volume unabridged audiobook. We’ve listened to a lot of audiobooks, and Jim Dale is by far the most gifted reader we’ve ever heard. Incredibly gifted.
The audiobook is 4.8 days long (about 115 hours). We thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on date nights and road trips. We’re sad it’s over.
The series is not without objectionable elements (e.g., the protagonist and his friends tell lies without negative consequences, and some of the language is not appropriate for children’s books), but overall J. K. Rowling’s story is brilliant, creative, intriguing, and entertaining. Its literary quality is not as exquisite as J. R. R. Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but it isn’t junk food either (cf. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature”). (Some of the movies, on the other hand, may qualify as junk food. Don’t judge a book by its movie.)
By the way, this may explain one of my Facebook status updates a couple of months ago:
If I become a professor at a college or seminary, I may suggest a different title than the typical “Professor of New Testament” or “Professor of Systematic Theology.” How about “Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts”?
That’s actually not a bad title. (Cf. my review of Focus on the Family Radio Theatre’s The Screwtape Letters.)
Update:
Jenni and I are enjoying listening to The Complete Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes dramatized by BBC (64 CDs, 48 hours, and featuring a full cast), and we found the following statement particularly striking when we heard it last night:
It’s a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst of all.
-Sherlock Holmes in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an agnostic
Over the last two weekends (and trailing into the wee hours of this morning!), Jenni and I listened to three more outstanding audio books by Randy Alcorn: Deadline, Dominion, and Deception. They’re like modern Sherlock Holmes novels that deal in an edifying way with issues like abortion, racism, and faith and challenge readers to live in light of eternity.
Since Randy is the author, I expected the novels to be edifying. What I didn’t see coming was his ability to write a riveting murder mystery. This partially explains it:
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors/artists?
Those who read Deception will see that I have a special love for Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories—every chapter begins with a Holmes quote. In Deception, I also pay tribute to the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I’ve read or listened to most of the forty-seven Nero Wolfe books.
Deadline is the story of a politically correct journalist forced by tragic and mysterious circumstances to come to terms with his own mortality. In the process he must also deal with the consequences of his skewed perspectives on life, family, morality, and religion. Intended for believers and unbelievers.
Deadline portrays friendship, family, faith, morality, social decline and media bias in the context of an unpredictable and hopeful story of personal crisis and change. The second story line, on death’s other side, compliments the who-done-it mystery. Deadline is a unique pro-family, pro-values, pro-life, pro-faith book. It portrays the vital connection between how we think and live in the present, and how that will inevitably impact our future, both on earth and in eternity.
Clarence Abernathy, an Oregon columnist and suburban middle-class black, is dragged into a world of inner-city gangs, drugs, violence and racial conflict. Clarence’s anger at injustices he cannot control pulls him onto turf that becomes more dangerous by the moment. Encouraged by fellow columnist Jake Woods, Clarence forges an unlikely partnership with Ollie Chandler, a white homicide detective. As the case unfolds questions of racial prejudice and misunderstanding rise to the surface. As unseen eyes watch from above, the urban terror that has robbed Clarence of loved ones and uprooted his faith in God now threatens to unleash its deadly violence on him.
In the footsteps of his best-selling novel Deadline, author Randy Alcorn tells an exciting story filled with drama. The characters are so real you’ll never forget them. In America’s racially charged atmosphere, this story offers profound insight concerning our perceptions and conflicts, and points clearly toward the only true hope for racial reconciliation. As you become immersed in its riveting story, Dominion will make you laugh, cry and think.
Ollie Chandler is a brilliant and quick-witted homicide detective with exceptional deductive skills and street smarts. He’s a police department legend for his off-beat methods that solve crimes and coax confessions. But he’s a risk taker and a rule-bender who drives his procedure-conscious superiors crazy. If not for his success rate, he’d have been squeezed out of the detective division years ago.
When a Portland State University professor is found murdered in his home, Ollie is called in. Some strange indications on the professor’s body suggest a peculiar means of death. Tests confirm something even more bizarre than Ollie suspected. A motive of revenge seems likely. But revenge for what? The murder mystery gets more complex the deeper Ollie probes.
Deception is a spin-off of Randy’s first two novels, Deadline and Dominion.
Here’s a three-minute video of Randy talking about Deception (following a brief audio clip from the novel):
This week my wife and I listened to the audio book of Randy Alcorn‘s novel Safely Home (Tyndale House, 2001). We finished the six audio CDs last night after our church’s cross-centered Good Friday service. The novel is excellent, and it was a means of grace for both of us. It helped broaden our horizons on multiple levels (e.g., re persecution of Christians in China in particular and a heavenly perspective on persecution in general). Highly recommended.
It’s available in the following formats: paperback, hardcover, Kindle, audio download, and audio CD.
Related resources:
On December 17, 2008, John Piper warmly recommended Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like a River. Jenni and I read it together over the last month and finished it last night.
Enger is a gifted writer who crafts words like an artist, and his novel has several redeeming qualities. The problem, however, is that the story’s plot is far too thin. It starts well but then fizzles. We kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did. Perhaps this says more about us than it does about Enger—sort of like how the only thing being evaluated at fancy art museums is the people looking at the paintings, not the paintings themselves!
Should you read Peace Like a River? A cheeky side of me wants to answer, “No, don’t waste your life.” :-)
Over the last several weeks, Jenni and I listened to The Chronicles of Narnia, another first-class presentation by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Since purchasing the Narnia CDs about one year ago, this was our second time listening to this excellent twenty-two hour production (157 tracks on 19 CDs). (No, we’re not bored. We took some road trips and had some downtime with some illnesses.) It definitely beats TV.
Related:
1. Unabridged Narnia audiobooks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
2. My previous posts on The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports and Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom.
3. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature” (2005), which I have compiled into a single PDF: